Bristol parents take unpaid leave due to teacher strikes

Nick said he has to take a half day's pay to look after his daughter Addie

Parents are taking unpaid leave because of planned teacher strike action.

More than 100,000 teachers in England and Wales have taken to the picket lines over a pay dispute.

Parents in Bristol say they have to take half a day's pay to look after their children as some schools close across the city.

Bristol parent Nick says his eldest daughter is allowed to go to school but his youngest daughter Addie "needs to stay home with us".

"One of us will need to take half a day's pay to look after Addie," he said.

He added that he still supports the strikes.

Teacher and mother Rose will be striking and taking her youngest child to the march

Rose is a teacher and mother and said she would join the strike.

She said since her youngest child was unable to go to school, they would join her at the demonstration.

For other school staff, the situation was different.

Mr Wiltshire said head teachers face the challenge of deciding whether or not to close schools during the strikes

David Wiltshire, head of Kings of Wessex Academy, said: "For head teachers up and down the country it is a challenge as to whether we open the doors of the school to students or whether we have to close down certain year groups or indeed the whole school.

"As heads we do not know which members of staff will be striking. Logistically, that is extremely challenging."

Protesters near Bristol Cathedral joined thousands of teachers across England and Wales

Rose Hawthorn joined the teachers striking in Bristol

A Bristol student said: "I am in Year 11 now, so it is quite a big problem because lessons from now until summer go towards our final grades.

"It is quite important that we are in school, we have missed a lot of school due to Covid already."

Dan, a secondary school teacher in Swindon, said the strikes were about more than teacher's pay.

"It's about systemic underfunding of the public services, in particular, education," he said.

Debbie Brown said schools are lacking in resources

Debbie Brown, National Education Union (NEU) branch and district secretary for Swindon, said: "We are full of regret that we had had to take this action, but we want our voices heard.

"It's not just about a pay rise. The impact is on the budget of schools.

"[School] budgets are stripped to the bone. We can't afford supply teachers if teachers are off sick.

"Our support staff are being asked to cover classes, because we can't get supply teachers.

"That means students are being taught by unqualified staff."

Many teachers hope the strike will secure better pay and conditions

Mr Bolton said they have to weigh up short-term disruptions with long-term disruption caused by funding

Tom Bolton, the Bristol secretary of the National Education Union, said: "We have to weigh up the short-term disruption of the strikes with what is going to be the longer-term disruption being caused by funding cuts and the recruitment and retention crisis."